Delay ‘assures’ daycare closure: Forsyth -- Teddy Bear centre continues to be hot potato issue
Whistler Question
Jennifer Miller
March 19, 2009

WHISTLER – Councillor Ralph Forsyth said Council’s delay this week of action to pursue the continued operation of Teddy Bear Daycare will result in the closure and loss of licence for the Whistler Village daycare.

“You have assured the closure of the daycare. God help us — what about the families in this town?” Forsyth said while slamming his laptop shut, packing his things and storming out of Tuesday’s (March 17) Council meeting.

Council voted to table Forsyth’s motion that municipal staff work to secure a long-term lease for the daycare with a third party operator. Councillor Eckhard Zeidler put forward the motion to table, or suspend, Forsyth’s motion, requesting more information about the potential impacts to the municipality’s lease with the Millennium Place Society and other issues if Council were to pursue the continued operation of the daycare….

Meanwhile, a report released this week confirms Whistler’s child-care crisis, indicating that Whistler only has licenced child-care spaces for eight per cent of children age 0 to 2 (infants and toddlers) — and that number includes the spaces at Teddy Bear Daycare and the recently closed Spring Creek location of the Whistler Children’s Centre.

Forsyth and Mayor Ken Melamed went back and forth during Tuesday’s meeting about whether it’s Council’s place to intervene in the operations of Millennium Place when a lease is in place giving that responsibility to the Millennium Place Society.

Forsyth said it’s Council’s obligation to do what’s right for constituents who are suffering, and Millennium Place is now a municipally owned asset. There is a sense of urgency to act because the daycare licence will be lost if WB ceases operations as planned at the end of May, he said.

“Council needs to intervene at this time,” Forsyth said….

Councillor Chris Quinlan said the direction in another recent study about Whistler’s arts and culture sector suggests the Teddy Bear Daycare should remain open until an alternative location can be found. Quinlan said Council and staff could negotiate with the Millennium Place Society on the daycare without breaking the existing lease.

“I think we have to give direction at this point,” he said.

Councillor Grant Lamont also supported Forsyth’s intention. He agreed that a “better strategy” is needed for the daycare space, but that will take time and the daycare might be closed in the meantime.

“We have to find a way that this just doesn’t get thrown under the bus,” Lamont said.

The Teddy Bear Daycare issue has been a hot potato between the municipality and the Millennium Place Society in recent weeks. Society representatives have said the municipality’s Olympic “blackout” — about four months when the daycare could be rented out for Olympic-related uses — was a major factor in not being able to provide a long-term lease to WB. But Melamed said recently the daycare closure has little to do with the Olympics….

She said the board is “absolutely” looking for direction from the municipality on decisions for how the daycare space will be used when WB ceases operations….

Council voted to receive the Whistler Childcare Needs Assessment Report on Tuesday, which outlines the top three issues as a shortage of qualified childcare staff, a critical shortage of infant and toddler spaces and a shortage of housing for staff.